Thursday, November 20 12:20–4:40 PM

T-2: From Hippos to Hamsters—Caring for Animals in the Zoo and Classroom

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Ticketed Event: $40 advance; $45 on-site

Purchase tickets when you register online or on the Portland Advance Registration Form.

Food, shelter, and water are essential to the lives of animals. But what other things do animals need to be happy and healthy? Visit behind the scenes of the Oregon Zoo to see how staff cares for some very large and exotic animals. Then learn how you can take the principles of zoo keeping and apply them to your classroom animals. Learn how to create enriched lives for your classroom animals and inspire a sense of wonder and responsibility in your students.

Click here for more information on the zoo.

FORMAT: Field trip

Thursday, November 20 12:30–4:00 PM

T-1: Rice Museum Tour

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Ticketed Event: $17 advance; $22 on-site

Purchase tickets when you register online or on the Portland Advance Registration Form.

Rocks and minerals are an important part of the earth we share as well as the environment and economy we enjoy. Richard L. and Helen M. Rice founded the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in 1996 for the express purpose of passing on to present and future generations the opportunity to obtain knowledge and pleasure from these beautiful wonders of nature.

Home to the “Alma Rose” rhodochrosite from the Sweet Home Mine in Alma, Colorado, the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals hosts a collection of rocks and minerals that rivals that of any national museum. The museum also boasts the largest opal-filled thunder egg in the world, crystallized gold bigger than your hand, dinosaur eggs and fossils, an extensive meteorite collection, and hundreds of other attractions. It is the finest rocks and minerals museum in the Pacific Northwest, and one of the best in the nation.

Click here for more information on the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals.

FORMAT: Field trip

Thursday, November 20 12:45–3:45 PM

T-3: Vernier Software & Technology Tour

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Ticketed Event: $10 advance; $15 on-site

Purchase tickets when you register online or on the Portland Advance Registration Form.

Vernier Software & Technology has been providing affordable data-collection solutions for science education for over 25 years and we’d like to open our doors to you. Join us for a tour of Vernier Software & Technology with founder Dave Vernier. Along with seeing how Vernier works behind the scenes, you’ll have a chance to tour our LEED Gold green building, with 126 solar panels. You’ll also have the opportunity to see what’s new at Vernier during product demonstrations, and have a chance to take a ride on a Segway®!

Click here for more information on Vernier Software & Technology.

FORMAT: Field trip

Thursday, November 20 1:15–4:45 PM

T-4: OHSU Primate Center Exploration

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Ticketed Event: $17 advance; $22 on-site

Purchase tickets when you register online or on the Portland Advance Registration Form.

The tour of the Oregon National Primate Research Center at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) will include an interactive presentation about biomedical research, including information about current research projects and animal care. The presentation will be followed by a visit to the outdoor corrals to observe the center’s rhesus and Japanese macaque breeding colonies. Tour assistants (members of the center’s Behavioral Services Unit) will discuss animal behavior, enrichment projects, and training techniques.

Attendees should dress for the weather, as we will spend about half our time outside. Good walking shoes are recommended, and photography is not permitted.

FORMAT: Field trip

Thursday, November 20 1:40–4:20 PM

T-5: The New Green (Platinum) Buildings and Aerial Tram at Oregon Health & Science University

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Ticketed Event: $10 advance; $15 on-site

Purchase tickets when you register online or on the Portland Advance Registration Form.

“The 400,000-square-foot OHSU Center for Health and Healing is considered to be the largest and most complex building to achieve the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum award, and is the most resource-efficient building of its type in the nation. It uses 60 percent less energy than a similar code-compliant building and produces 30 percent of its power on-site with PV panels and microturbines providing combined heat and power. All of the rainwater falling on the building is captured and used for flushing toilets, and wastewater is processed on-site with a membrane bioreactor and reused for toilets, cooling tower water, and irrigation. Overall water savings are 56 percent below baseline.” GBD Architects website

Oregon Health & Science University’s Biomedical Research Building, which houses some of the most advanced laboratories and research equipment in the world, has also achieved world-class status as one of the most energy efficient and environmentally sustainable bio lab buildings. The 11-story, 274,000-square-foot structure on OHSU’s Marquam Hill campus has been awarded a coveted LEED Silver certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the nation’s green building standard setter.

Join us for a tour of both of these new green buildings at Oregon Health & Science University with an architect and an engineer from GBD Architects, the designers of the award-winning Center for Health & Healing. Take a ride on the Portland Aerial Tram, too, and learn about this essential connector to great health care, discovery, and learning. The tram quickly links doctors, nurses, engineers, scientists, students, and the public. This critical synergy creates a collaborative environment in which promising discoveries can quickly be translated into new therapies, and in which tomorrow’s caregivers will have access to all of OHSU.

Click here for information on the Portland Aerial Tram, here for information on OHSU’s Biomedical Research Building, and here for information on the BEST Award in Green Building, which OHSU won in 2007.

FORMAT: Field trip

Friday, November 21 8:15 AM–12:00 PM

F-1: U.S. Geological Survey—Cascades Volcano Observatory

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Ticketed Event: $14 advance; $19 on-site

Purchase tickets when you register online or on the Portland Advance Registration Form.

Active volcanoes dominate the skyline of the Pacific Northwest and are part of a 1,000-mile volcanic chain that extends from northern California to southern British Columbia. Eruptions have occurred at an average rate of about two per century during the past 4,000 years, and future eruptions are certain. The U.S. Geological Survey is responsible for assessing volcano hazards, monitoring volcanic activity, and issuing warnings of impending eruptions.

During this tour, scientists will provide an introduction to volcanic hazards, techniques for detection of volcanic unrest, short-range forecasting, the new alert level system, and volcano mitigation measures. You will view new technologies in volcano instrumentation and research facilities and receive newly released volcano posters, literature, and educational ideas. Cameras welcome.

Click here for information on Cascades Volcano Observatory.

FORMAT: Field trip

Friday, November 21 8:15–11:45 AM

F-2: OHSU Primate Center Exploration

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Ticketed Event: $17 advance; $22 on-site

Purchase tickets when you register online or on the Portland Advance Registration Form.

The tour of the Oregon National Primate Research Center at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) will include an interactive presentation about biomedical research, including information about current research projects and animal care. The presentation will be followed by a visit to the outdoor corrals to observe the center’s rhesus and Japanese macaque breeding colonies. Tour assistants (members of the center’s Behavioral Services Unit) will discuss animal behavior, enrichment projects, and training techniques.

Attendees should dress for the weather, as we will spend about half our time outside. Good walking shoes are recommended, and photography is not permitted.

FORMAT: Field trip

Friday, November 21 8:20 AM–4:45 PM

F-3: Science—A View from the Zoo

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Ticketed Event: $75 advance; available by preregistration only

Purchase tickets when you register online or on the Portland Advance Registration Form.

Kids and animals go together. Throw in science inquiry and you have a perfect combination for making learning fun. Animal behaviorist Dr. David Shepherdson will go through the steps of creating a good, testable research question using zoo animals as study subjects. Working in groups you will develop a data collection plan and do a mini-study of the Oregon Zoo’s animals. Each group will analyze their data and present their findings to the group. The day will conclude with a discussion of incorporating animal research into the classroom setting. Lunch included.

Click here for information on the zoo.

FORMAT: Field trip

Friday, November 21 8:45 AM–12:00 PM

F-4: Easy Ways to Make Your School Greener

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Ticketed Event: $11 advance; $16 on-site

Purchase tickets when you register online or on the Portland Advance Registration Form.

Click here for information on the Sunnyside Environmental School.

FORMAT: Field trip

Friday, November 21 12:30–4:00 PM

F-5: Rice Museum Tour

,

Ticketed Event: $17 advance; $22 on-site

Purchase tickets when you register online or on the Portland Advance Registration Form.

Rocks and minerals are an important part of the earth we share as well as the environment and economy we enjoy. Richard L. and Helen M. Rice founded the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in 1996 for the express purpose of passing on to present and future generations the opportunity to obtain knowledge and pleasure from these beautiful wonders of nature.

Home to the “Alma Rose” rhodochrosite from the Sweet Home Mine in Alma, Colorado, the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals hosts a collection of rocks and minerals that rivals that of any national museum. The museum also boasts the largest opal-filled thunder egg in the world, crystallized gold bigger than your hand, dinosaur eggs and fossils, an extensive meteorite collection, and hundreds of other attractions. It is the finest rocks and minerals museum in the Pacific Northwest, and one of the best in the nation.

Click here for more information on the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals.

FORMAT: Field trip

Friday, November 21 1:15–4:45 PM

F-6: OHSU Primate Center Exploration

,

Ticketed Event: $17 advance; $22 on-site

Purchase tickets when you register online or on the Portland Advance Registration Form.

The tour of the Oregon National Primate Research Center at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) will include an interactive presentation about biomedical research, including information about current research projects and animal care. The presentation will be followed by a visit to the outdoor corrals to observe the center’s rhesus and Japanese macaque breeding colonies. Tour assistants (members of the center’s Behavioral Services Unit) will discuss animal behavior, enrichment projects, and training techniques.

Attendees should dress for the weather, as we will spend about half our time outside. Good walking shoes are recommended, and photography is not permitted.

FORMAT: Field trip